This invention relates to gaming and gaming systems. More particularly, the invention relates to a bingo-type gaming system in which a set of bingo card representations is pre-matched to produce a set of game play records which are later assigned to players. The invention encompasses a method, apparatus, and program product for implementing the gaming system.
Bingo-type games are played with predefined bingo cards which each include a number of bingo game designations such as Arabic numerals randomly arranged in a desired manner, commonly in a grid. The bingo game designations on the cards are selected from a pool of available game designations. In more traditional bingo-type games the cards are physically printed on paper or other suitable material. These printed cards are purchased by players prior to the start of a game. Once all the cards for a game have been purchased, game designations from the available pool of game designations are selected at random. As the game designations are selected and announced in the game, the players match the randomly selected game designations with the designations printed on their respective card or cards. This matching and marking of matched designations on the bingo card is commonly referred to as xe2x80x9cdaubingxe2x80x9d the card. The player first producing a predetermined pattern of matches between the randomly selected game designations and the printed card designations is considered the winner. Consolation prizes may be awarded to players having cards matched to produce consolation prize patterns at the time of the winning pattern.
There are numerous variations on the traditional bingo game. Some bingo-type games perform a draw to produce a set of game designations prior to the sale of printed bingo cards. These bingo-type games use printed cards like regular printed bingo cards, but with the card face concealed in some fashion. Once a player purchases one of these covered face bingo cards, the player can match the drawn designations to the printed card designations to determine if the matched designations produce some predetermined winning pattern. The first player to redeem a card with the winning pattern ends the game.
Another variation of the traditional bingo game is played with electronic bingo card representations rather than the traditional printed bingo cards. In these bingo-type games, each bingo card is represented by a data structure which defines the various card locations and designations associated with the locations. This bingo-type game is played through player stations connected via a communications network to a central computer system. The central computer system is responsible for storing the bingo card representations and distributing or communicating bingo card representations to players at the player stations. The player stations display the bingo cards defined by the card representations and also allow the players to daub or mark designation matches as game designations are announced in the game. A primary advantage of this electronic bingo game is that the games may be played at a much faster pace than is practical with traditional paper bingo. Another advantage of this electronic version of bingo is that the games can be administered and controlled from a remote location and actually played at a number of different bingo establishments.
Traditional bingo games, either played with paper cards or electronic card representations are limited in the manner in which the results of a game may be displayed. In order to maintain player interest in the game, it is desirable to have an option of displaying results to the players in a variety of different fashions. It is also desirable to further increase the speed at which bingo-type games may be played. Yet it is essential that the game retain the basic characteristics of a bingo-type game, namely that the game is played with predefined cards or card representations which the players match or daub against randomly generated game designations, and the game winner is the first player to match the designations in a predetermined winning pattern on his or her card or card representation.
A gaming system embodying the principles of the invention utilizes a game designation generating component, a gaming establishment component, and a set of predefined bingo card representations. Each bingo card representation is stored in electronic format as a data structure or data record defining a predefined pattern of game designations chosen from a pool of available designations. The game designations associated with a given bingo card representation may be referred to as card designations. The game designation generating component generates sets of game designations from a pool of available designations. Winning and losing bingo card representations for a particular game are determined by matching the card designations to a game designation set produced for that game. A card representation having designations which match designations from the given game designation set in a predetermined game ending pattern is considered a winning card for the given game designation set. Card representations having designations which match the given set of game designations in other predetermined patterns before the game ending pattern is achieved are also considered winning cards and are awarded other prizes.
The method according to the invention includes pre-matching the bingo card representations to a given set of game designations to produce a matched card set. This pre-matching occurs prior to the sale, distribution, or assignment of card representations to players in the game. Each matched bingo card representation in the matched card set represents a respective game play record for use in the present gaming system. The matched card set thus includes a number of game play records, each corresponding to a different one of the bingo card representations. As used in this disclosure and the accompanying claims the term xe2x80x9cnumberxe2x80x9d when referring to a quantity of items means some quantity of more than one such item. Each game play record in the matched card set includes or is associated with a result indicator which indicates whether the respective bingo card representation is a winning card or losing card for that set of game designations. The invention also includes assigning individual game play records from the matched card set in response to game play requests initiated by players. Data representing the matched card sets may be stored in a data storage device and individual game play records may be assigned as needed from the data storage device.
In the play of a bingo-type game according to the invention, a set of game designations is determined by the game designation generating component. A processing device included in the gaming establishment component matches the set of bingo card representations to the set of game designations provided by the game designation generating component and stores the resulting matched card set. The matched card set is stored in a secure fashion so that no one can see the results of the pre-matching and thus the result associated with any game play record in the set.
Once the stored matched card set is opened for play, a player at the gaming establishment component may purchase a game play record from the set through a player station included in the gaming establishment component. That is, in response to a game play request initiated by the player at a player station, the player is assigned a game play record in some random order from the respective matched card set. Since each game play record corresponds to a bingo card representation, the assignment of a game play record to a player is equivalent to distributing the underlying bingo card representation to the player. The information that the player station actually receives in response to a game play request is sufficient to allow the player station to display the results associated with the game play record, that is, the results of matching the respective card designations to the given set of game designations. If the matched designations for the bingo card representation corresponding to the assigned game play record produces one of the predetermined winning patterns, the player receives credits or winnings. However, if the matched designations for the bingo card representation corresponding to the assigned game play record does not produce one of the predetermined winning patterns, the player receives no winnings or credits.
A game according to the invention ends once a player has received or has been assigned results from a game play record (that is, xe2x80x9choldsxe2x80x9d a game play record) corresponding to a card representation matched to produce a particular predetermined game ending pattern. Thus, the game ending pattern sets the criteria for ending a bingo-type game pursuant to the invention. The game ending criteria may be, for example, the first game play record assigned in which the corresponding bingo card representation has all of its card designations matched by the designations included in the set of game designations. In any event, once the game ending criteria are met for a given game according to the invention, play continues with a new matched card set which has previously been created using a different set of game designations. A number of matched card sets may be produced and stored to provide substantially continuous play of successive games, each matched card set representing the bingo card representations and results for a separate bingo-type game.
The gaming establishment component preferably includes a cashless gaming system, although cash based systems and cash equivalent systems may be employed according to the invention. In the preferred cashless gaming system, a player places wagers electronically at a player terminal included at the gaming establishment component, and receives results of the wager electronically as well. Accounting for the preferred cashless system is managed through a back office portion of the gaming establishment component.
The gaming system according to the invention allows the results of each wager to be displayed quickly and in a variety of fashions or formats. The game may be played like any bingo-type game with the graphical representation of the card being displayed at the player station and the player controlling the player station to daub the card to determine if the card is a winning or losing card. Alternatively to this manual daubing, the gaming system may automatically daub the card representations corresponding to the game play request assigned to the player and cause the player station to display the results of the automatic daubing, that is, the results associated with the respective game play record. This automatic daubing allows the results of the wager to be displayed to the player at the player terminal to mimic some other game or contest such as a casino game for example. However, the underlying game remains a bingo-type game, that is, a game having the essential characteristics of a bingo game as described above.
These and other objects, advantages, and features of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments, considered along with the accompanying drawings.